TravelStream™ news feed for member jenipa on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jenipa en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 02 Dec 2005 08:01:32 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1133522820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1133522820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1133522820/tpod.html Fri, 02 Dec 2005 08:01:32 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Jincheon, Korea Rep.

Today I am in agony..
On Tuesday night as my company class cancelled on me, Young-Hun persuaded me to come and play squash with him.
He's been trying to get me to come with him to "his new fitness club" since he joined up last week. He signed up with Hui-Jin, one of the Kindy teachers and another friend of his who runs a music academy in Jincheon, for squash lessons, but in typical Young-Hun style he wanted to do it his way and the lessons weren't pacey enough for him. I thought it'd be fun to go, I haven't played squash much though I used to be quite good at badminton.
And it was fun, so much so that I went again last night and was persuaded to sign up for a months membership.

But today, oh my goodness my legs hurt. I thought I was fine this morning until I had to go in and take my tiny children in a singing class. I make them do lots of physical movements - stamp your feet, shake your hands, stretch your legs etc, (This is partly using a teaching technique (TPR) but it does also reduce the amount of time I have to spend singing...) and I was fine until we got to doing the Hokey-Cokey when I felt my hamstring give out. I noticed Hui-Jin wasn't joining in too much today either, she usually bops about with the best of them... For the rest of today I was limping around school in complete agony.

It hasn't helped that Im coming down with my third cold in as many weeks. All the kids at school are coughing for Korea and they do it right in your face, so Im not surprised at the amount of colds Ive been catching. As I write this I am sat on the wonky sofa in the living room which, when the underfloor heating is on somehow manages to be the hottest spot in the apartment, curled up with a glass of my new favourite Korean curiosity, a kind of plum wine (it has real live plums living in the bottom of the bottle), hoping to shake the aches and pains off by the weekend. I think the intense floor heat is doing my legs good...

I've now got four teaching weeks left. Its too scary how quickly the time is going. Rachel leaves in 10 days and at the moment there isn't a replacement teacher for me so Im going to be on my own up until New Year. Theres going to be so many things that I'll miss that Im determined to try and log them all so I won't forget them.
The couple that run the corner store by Sam-Jin Apt block 101... they're so friendly. The husband always practises his English numbers with me and in return has been trying to teach me the Korean for such household items as candles cho, strawberries ddal gi & milk ooyu. I think the sales for Frosties in that shop will fall once I've left.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/some_trips02-04/1031754540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/some_trips02-04/1031754540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/some_trips02-04/1031754540/tpod.html Sun, 27 Nov 2005 08:26:42 -0500 A few trips here and there..

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Casablanca, Morocco

Photos
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1133080860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1133080860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1133080860/tpod.html Sun, 27 Nov 2005 07:57:37 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Cheongju, Korea Rep.

Yesterday we went on a day trip to Cheongju. Nothing too remarkable in that you might think, as its only 45 minutes away and I go there quite often for shopping or to the big Carrefour supermarket.
But yesterday's trip was a bit of an excuse for Rachel, Young-Hun and I to spend what might be our last weekend all together doing something all together. Rachel goes back to England in two weeks and although she will coming back after Christmas, I will have left by then to go to Australia.
The original reason for spending the day in Cheongju was that we had official business at the Immigration Office proving that we weren't fake graduates. Young-Hun arranged to pick us up at 10am and we'd start from there.
First problem though; from 9am we had no electricity and so no hot water. In each apartment there is a speaker through which the building supervisor can make announcements: repair works, lifts out of action etc and there had been lots of announcements the day before, but they were all in Korean and so we just ignored them. Obviously they were letting everyone know that the electricity would be off for 3 hours on Saturday morning...
When we finally made it to Cheongju, wiped clean and hair unwashed, the Immigration Ofiice looked suspiciously empty, of immigrants and workers and, on closer inspection it transpired that office hours were Monday - Friday... No real surprise there, at least not to Rachel & I... Young-Hun was most surprised and perplexed. Honestly has anyone been anywhere where government offices are open at the weekend? He's on a different planet sometimes, but it is quite endearing.

We headed into the nearby shopping mall to find an early lunch before catching a movie. Dream Plus is an uninspiring looking mall but like a lot of uninspiring looking places it proves you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, as the food hall is amazingly cheap and amazingly good. So after stuffing ourselves silly on ggas we went up to the 8th floor to watch "Lord of War" with Nicholas Cage. I have to admit it hadn't sounded like the most inspiring choice, and maybe it's because I haven't seen a film in the cinema for a while (so the experience seemed quite exciting again...) but I was watching it like I'd never been to see a film before in my life. It was kind of interesting, but I think I need a couple of days to think about that and so I reserve the right to change my mind...

For ages now Young-Hun had been promising to take us to see the big golden statue of Buddha, so while it was still light it seemed a good time to visit. It's not actually in Cheongju but Eumseong, a smaller town in our province and about 45 minutes drive. By the time we got there it was starting to get dark and cold but it was worth it. The statue stands about 100 ft high and is painted gold. From the highway driving up you can see the Buddha's head poking up above the trees. There was no actual temple building, Young-Hun thought it was further up the hill, but in front of the statue was a raised square for prayers and behind him were speakers playing music and speaking (something...) in soothing Buddhist tones. He was positioned part way up a hill, so he overlooked the cemetery.
But Buddha was awe inspiring enough without needing a decorative building around him. Standing there staring up at him, he looked intimidating and I had a flash of the awesome moment in Jason and the Argonauts when the statue of Talos turns his head to fix on Hercules after he has plundered his treasures. I'm glad Buddha didn't turn his gaze on me, he was chilling enough without any special effects.

To finish the evening off we came back to Jincheon and to one of Young-Hun's favourite fish barbecue restaurants. Well, it used to be a fish barbecue, now its a spicy fish soup restaurant. It was delicious. And very spicy. Every bit of the fish was cooking in the soup, including some revolting looking egg sacs (!?) I did try a little bit of them, but just weren't to my taste. Apparently they are a delicacy and according to Young-Hun they are the bits that everyone fights for. Well lucky for him, he had no competition for them today.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1100011140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1100011140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1100011140/tpod.html Fri, 25 Nov 2005 06:35:59 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Manchester, United Kingdom

this entry was added in November 2005...
I thought I should maybe put a little note in here for anyone who is reading this travelogue in chronological order to explain how piggledy the entries are.
Being the kind of person that gets incredibly enthusiastic about one project only to then abandon said project when another one comes along, this travelogue is an exercise for me in getting focused and organised. I first came across this website early last year and, on a trip to South Africa, started my first entries only to get sidetracked and lose faith in my new project. (Anyone who is reading the current state of that travelpod will see what I mean.) I completely forgot about the site until a couple of months ago and I realised I had missed out on a great opportunity to document my trips and experiences since leaving London and England behind.
What I've been trying to do is catch up on the more interesting experiences of my travel and the year in Korea so far. It's proving to be quite a task. I'm not a natural writer, I find that expressions and descriptions that I run through my head don't transfer well into my written entries, but this could improve with time and constant practice. Also, as fast as I'm trying to think through the current day to day events, my head is going backwards trying to remember the details of when, why, how & what I did three, six, nine months ago...
But, like I said, its an interesting challenge.
So, if you're having a look at this travelogue and wonder about the continuity, be patient and maybe check back every now and then! Entries are constantly being written and updated, just not in a very chronological way...

xxx

Jen
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1132632540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1132632540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1132632540/tpod.html Fri, 25 Nov 2005 06:34:56 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Jincheon, Korea Rep.

Well I'm sitting here in the apartment looking out of the balcony window at the thickest mist outside. The last few days it has been beautifully sunny and clear but as cold as anything.... Its amazing how quickly this has all snuck up on us. Not too long ago we were still wearing T-shirts to school and Rachel and I were commenting every day on how warm it still was. But slowly, a few days at a time, the warmer clothes crept out of the wardrobe, the apartment windows were closed and then double closed, and the ondol underfloor heating, was switched on, for an hour then two, then more.
My walks into school of a morning have given me the opportunity to see how the landscape has been changing over the year. It has also been a, sometimes uncomfortable, indicator of the changing temperature..
During the summer the 20 minutes that the walk took was unbearably hot as there's no overhanging trees on the way to provide shade. Usually a couple of minutes down the road and I would be wilting from the heat. Korean skies don't seem to ever have many clouds.
There also doesn't seem to have been any temperate middle ground. It seems like it went from very hot one month to very cold the next. No chance for an easy "cool period"!

Every morning over this last month I have had to add a little bit more to my outfit to beat the cold. First it was swapping t-shirt for long sleeve top, then adding a thin jacket. Next I added a scarf, then the jacket became a thin coat and the one top became two layered tops.. My cropped summer trousers went into a box to be sent on and out came the warmer jeans. Last week saw the woollen beret, leg-warmers (yes, they are very popular here..) and the furry boots. This week I have been wearing my big furry coat and I bought a new pair of gloves. The last thing I have yet to wear, and therefore admit it is full on winter, is my thick hat with earflaps. I was hoping to try and build up my resistance slowly to the cold, but Im too much of a cold wuss. I hope I haven't peaked to soon as there's still five weeks to go, it could get a lot colder yet....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1114274160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1114274160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1114274160/tpod.html Sun, 20 Nov 2005 07:09:46 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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The DMZ, Korea Rep.

One unavoidable thing about living in South Korea is the national longing for a unified country. The Korean war ran for three years until the cease fire in 1953 and Korea was divided in two. The cease fire is still in place and one thing that quite surprised me to learn was that the two Koreas are still technically at war and are the cease fire, at 52yrs is the longest recorded.
The peninsular is divided along the 38th parallel by a DeMilitarized Zone (the DMZ), 4km wide and stretches 248km from coast to coast. It is heavily fortified on each side and no-one has been allowed inside it for the last 50yrs.
Tours operate on both sides of the border allowing visitors the chance to see the DMZ (and a glimpse of the North & South Koreas) but as any chance to enter North Korea seems to be through an organised tour from China, this was going to be my best chance to get to see The Hermit Kingdom while I was here this year.

It is do-able on a one day trip leaving from Seoul, so Rachel and I decided to try it out. We had to leave Jincheon on an early bus in order to get to the pick up point in Seoul. We were met at the bus terminal by the tour leader and as we piled into the back of his car he explained we were the first to arrive and so we'd be driving into the centre to collect some others. The traffic was terrible Saturday traffic and it took ages to make our way to Insadong. Rachel & I were quietly muttering that we could have woken up later and taken the subway, thus avoiding the roads, if all we needed to do was get to Insadong.. Still, we picked up our next two passengers, an American mother and son who were an interesting combination. He ran an antique bookstore in San Fransisco and bombarded us with questions about living in Korea as he was disbelieving that anyone could live here and not go crazy... His mother had lived here in the 1940s and was on a nostalgic trip to revisit the places she knew. A short drive later we arrived at a hotel where the rest of the tour group was waiting. We changed cars and all piled into a (very) small van and started the drive north. Among our fellow travellers was an American teacher, who was in the last week of his contract and not a moment too soon if you listened to his diatribe about living here. He was accompanied by his pregnant Thai girlfriend who kept talking in an annoying baby voice. There was an interesting couple from Hong Kong. Between them they must have spoken about 4 or 5 languages and they ran businesses in Hong Kong, Japan & China. Some more English teachers, this time from New Zealand and a couple of American guys who worked in banking. Along with myself and Rachel, and the American mother son combo we'd picked up earlier we were quite a motley crew.

Our first destination was the city of Paju. This is apparently the most Northerly South Korean place you can get to unaccompanied. If taking a train from Seoul you wouldn't be able to get any further than here, and the area between this place and the DMZ itself is known as the Civilian Control Area, so passports (or ID for Koreans) are needed.
We were to stop in Paju for about 90 minutes, partly for a lunch stop but also for our guide to complete the relevant paperwork to let us go further North. So after taking our passports he let us off the bus to explore Paju.
And what a strange place it was to explore. Half military observation post and half amusement park. We set off first to have a look at the Freedom Bridge (Imjingak) across a small river (the Imjin). The first reminder of the day of how the two Korea's are still "enemies" came with big notices telling us in no uncertain terms that photography is prohibited. Photography of any soldiers or of the fences & gates keeping us from going too far north. The freedom bridge crossed over a sculptured park area and at the far end of the bridge was a big chain fence with soldiers. The freedom bridge was so named as in the armistice of 1953, thousands of war prisoners were repatriated to the south and crossed here. The bridge is now more of a symbolic crossing point as a newer bridge into the DMZ was built about 10 years ago. Further along a new railroad bridge has also been built and this is part of the project to restore the rail link connecting the two countries. The fence at the end of the bridge is decorated with letters and notes turning it into something of a peace memorial.
As far as Koreas divided history went, there wasn't much else at Paju of interest. They had a selection of army vehicles on display; tanks, jeeps, planes etc but a sign posted exhibition on North Korea was nowhere to be found and so we headed off to find some food.
The other attractions there were more of the fairground variety with the ubiquitous Viking ship and waltzers. We thought it might be some kind of psychological ploy to lure North Koreans over with the wurlitzer sounds of the fairground...
With about 10 minutes before having to be back at the pickup point we bumped into the two NZers and started chatting to them about what there was to see. Turns out they had stayed in a food tent for an hour then had a wander around the funfair. They looked a bit taken aback when we mentioned the Freedom Bridge, big barbed wire fences and the soldiers with guns as they hadn't noticed any of that and had wondered why we had stopped there in the first place... Honestly, soldiers with guns were the first thing you saw as you got off the bus. They had obviously been bedazzled by the sparkly Paju funfair..

We all hopped back on the bus, which had been miraculously transformed into a coach for the 10 minute ride to Dorasan station. We were given our passports back as we had to submit them to an onboard inspection from a seriously serious looking soldier. This was to let us into the Civilian controlled area. Anyone that lives and works here is subject to checks. Coming back through the checkpoint were streams of empty trucks which our guide pointed out as having had been on a Norht Korean food run, taking food aid into NK as part of a government program. A few minutes later we hopped off the bus at Dorasan train station. A brand new building, it is the flagship station for the North-South railroad link. The project is still ongoing but the South has apparently fulfilled its part and has built the line up to the border. All that is needed now is the North to finish its part of the line and for the border to be opened. Once the rail line is finished and connected it will mean you can potentially travel from the South all the way up to China and connect with the Trans-Siberian, which is an exciting idea as far as train travel goes. How free the passengers would be in terms of travelling through NK is something we couldn't figure out. Would South Koreans be allowed to travel and/or get off the train in the North? It also seems that to allow a transport connection to the South, the North would have to take further steps in opening up to the west. Surely it would also allow for more chances of North Koreans to try and leave. Getting a definitive answer from our guide on this point was a bit tricky. It was our understanding that no South Korean can visit North Korea even through China, so it would be unlikely that they could take a train and jut hop off in Pyongyang for a bit of shopping, but he, on the other hand, told us there was no problem for South Koreans to visit the North anyway...
Anyway, whatever the answer, the station on the southern side is ready. There is even a departure board optimistically announcing the train to Pyongyang. All it needs are passengers.

Back onto the bus for another short journey, this time to the observatory on Dora Mt. (Dorasan). This was going to be our best chance of seeing the DMZ proper, and of course our only chance to see the North. Our bus wound its way up the mountain and on looking out the window into the woodland you couldn't help but notice the no photography and danger! mines notices every few yards. Yikes.
The observatory itself was small, at least the part for tourists to wander around for was. We weren't allowed inside and the viewing area was like a large platform. You were perfectly free to walk up to the edge to view, and to use the viewing binoculars, but any photographs had to be taken from behind a yellow line about three metres back. Cue everyone standing on tiptoes and holding their cameras above their heads.. Where's a tall person (or a box) when you need them...?
As no-one has had access to the DMZ for the last 50 years, nature has managed to reclaim it and according to various studies animal, bird and plant life has flourished. One of the hopes is that when the Koreas are united the DMZ will become a nature reserve.
I don't know what I was expecting to see when I looked at it but it didn't look any different from the rest of Korea. Trees, bushes, plants. Just no people. Except...
On the South Korean side there is a small village named the "Freedom Village". Its a farming community and in recompense for being the first in line come a Northern invasion, the villagers are exempt from taxes. They are also under a curfew, after dark they must be in the village and by 10pm they must be indoors. Anyone outside after that time is likely to be mistaken for a NK spy. Not to be outdone, on the Northern half of the DMZ there is also a village. This one is entirely empty, just a ghost town. Propaganda slogans are played over loudspeakers and a facade of occupancy is maintained by having house lights come on and off at regular intervals. At the head of each village is a huge national flag quite easily visible from Dorasan.
By paying 500W and looking through the binoculars you could see a N Korean city off in the distance. The same high rise apartment buildings as you get in the South, surrounded by the same landscapes. Again I didn't know what I had expected to see, getting this tiny glimpse of the North... A black cloud of oppression blocking the sun? It looked the same as the southern side.
Our final visit of the day was to the Third Tunnel. Since the mid 1970s, four "infiltration" tunnels have been discovered running under the DMZ originating from the Northern half, the most recent of which was found in 1990. We were going to take a look inside the 3rd. I'm not sure why this one is the most "famous", perhaps it is the largest or maybe it was the most threatening.. Seoul is only about 60 km away and so easily reachable.
It was quite a way underground and we had to wear hard hats as the ceiling was quite low in places and rough. Unfortunately there was no photography allowed and we had to leave all of our bags in lockers. Not that there was anything much to photograph and see. As we made our way through there were information boards pointing out various signs. When the tunnel was discovered apparently the North Koreans denied they had dug it and that it had been dug from the southern side. The boards pointed out the various clues from which you could tell which side had been digging... The ones I can remember are the slope of the tunnel, it slopes up from the Northern side, to allow for water drainage. Also the dynamite scorch marks from blasting away the rock show which direction the dynamite was facing. There were five in all, but Ive forgotten the others.
It was dark and cold in the tunnel and once we reached the end point, the "Military Demarcation Line" which we supposed might be the middle of the DMZ, and actually looked like a big iron door, we were quite happy to head back out and into the sun.

It had been an interesting day, and although most of if had been spent in bussing around to get from point to point, it would have been difficult to get to see most of it without going through a tour. There was actually not that much to see, or rather not much that we were allowed to see but Im glad I went, even if its just to say I have seen North Korea, albeit from a distance.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1132057380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1132057380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1132057380/tpod.html Tue, 15 Nov 2005 08:26:22 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Jincheon, Korea Rep.

After being here for just over 11 months, I've now got my flight back to Australia confirmed. I'll be leaving here on January 2nd next year.
The trip over involved a mammoth journey involving a huge stopover at Ho Chi Minh airport where there was nothing to do except spend ridiculous amounts of dollars on expensive internet access. I was allowed a free plane dinner as I was "in transit" for so long. For the trip back I am starting to accumulate books (trashy ones, therefore disposable) so I will have something to read.
So now the countdown can begin and I can add the closing date to this travelogue....

Before I go however, I am going to have to confirm to the authorities that I am legally entitled to be here. The government it seems is starting to crack down on "illegal teachers" ie, those teachers that are here with fake degrees. Korea is a relatively easy country to find teaching work. The only provisos are that you are a native English speaker and that you have a valid degree from a course consisting of 3 or 4 years study. If you search the relevant discussion forums there are heaps of posters asking about where to buy fake degrees, or if they would be able to get away with it if they bought one.

Last week a number of Canadians were deported from our province for having fake degrees and the authorities here are taking it very seriously. Rachel and I received a form from the immigration office which we will have to take down there and sign in front of them attesting to the fact that we are bona fide graduates.

When I first arrived I had to take a trip to the immigration office, which is in Cheongju, with Young-Hun in order to get my alien id card. Everyone has an id card here and the number you are issued with is your id number for everything, from booking train tickets online to renting a dvd at the local store. The one I have has my photo, nationality, visa type (mine is an E2 - specific to teaching English), my registered address and the dates it is valid for. For me it is as good as a passport when checking into hotels etc, and I have to use it when transferring money at the bank.
Last time Young-Hun and I went, we skipped school to go. I had to sign a piece of paper and hand over my passport then we went and messed around in the shops and then he took me out for lunch.
We'll probably do the same this time. It's all coming around full circle.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1126614660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1126614660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1126614660/tpod.html Mon, 14 Nov 2005 06:20:02 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Jincheon, Korea Rep.

I've noticed my terminology has become more Americanised since I've been here. And this is entirely due to keeping it consistent for the students sake.
A lot of Koreans have learnt their speech patterns and pronunciation from tapes, which 9 times out of 10 are made by American speakers. So "water" becomes "waader" and "Saturday" becomes "Saaderday". The words are almost drawled when spoken.
They know a rubber to be an eraser so I've been following suit. I go to the movies, have a vacation and wear pants, not trousers. Fortunately I haven't had to alter my accent as Young-Hun is keen for the students to become familiar with the English pronunciation. Previous teachers have been Australian, New Zealander and Welsh as well as English so they have already had exposure to many accents. I've heard of plenty of teachers having to "change" their accents in order to teach the "American" sounds.
I'm a lot more careful to dot my "i"s and make sure my letter writing is consistent. They can become easily confused if a capital "I" doesn't have the cross sections top & bottom.
I am also acutely aware of my accent and pronunciation, the kids will mimic your every sound in order to get it right. This became very noticeable during a lesson on telling the time when I suddenly found myself listening to a class of 9yr olds chanting "haff past" in a rapid Northern English accent. Could make for an interesting mixture..."Saaderday at haff past.."

One cheeky boy has starting mimicking my every expression. I can't really object to it as at least he is using the English words and trying them out in a context. I know now that I overuse the word "really?" as he picked up on that during one class when they were trying to tell me they had all been to England, India, Mexico or Brazil..."Really?"
Anytime now that I explain any grammar point or phonic to them, a little voice pipes up at the back with a disbelieving, "Really?"...
This is the same 9 yr old boy that is good at winding me up (in a funny way..) with the following dialogue, "Jennifer seonsaengnim, if D + O is "do" ("doo"), why is D + O + G not "doog"?"
There's no arguing that logic....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1117975320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1117975320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1117975320/tpod.html Sun, 13 Nov 2005 05:39:52 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Busan, Korea Rep.

Another lovely day and I was up early to get a good start to Beomeosa Temple. A little way out of the city it was certainly do-able in a morning and judging by the amount of Koreans decked out in hiking gear it was a popular destination.
The temple was founded in AD678 although like almost all of Korea's ancient buildings and monuments it was destroyed at some point during Japanses invasions or wars and subsequently been rebuilt.
It wasn't too far out of town to be easily reachable. The subway line takes you away from Busan centre and on to Beomeosa station, where you then exit into what seems more like a local village than a suburb of a city.
I liked this. It reinforced my view that it is possible to live in a big, urban happening centre and yet within a half hours travel have peaceful and serene places to go and relax. Korea certainly doesn't disappoint with this. Cities and towns nestle quite happily beneath hills and mountains, so it is easy to leave the urban life for a day or afternoon and get back to nature.

From the subway station I took a walk up the hill to the centre of the village to catch the bus that went up to the temple. For all of my early start to Sunday, I wasn't alone. The temple is at the foot of Mt Geumjeong and this Mt with its many trails is a popular Sunday hike. I'm glad I took the bus as the road up was very windy. That's windy as in twisty-turny windy,not windy blowing-a-gale windy.. At the top there was a ticket office charging the princely sum of 1000W (50p) entrance. The bus dropped us all here and after a short walk up a steep path we came to the courtyard entrance of the Temple.
I am sure that the locations for temples were chosen with certain criteria in mind. Perhaps the mountain has special properties, whether it faces in an auspicious direction or maybe it is the serenity of the area. This one definitely had the latter in its favour. Despite the other visitors milling around, the temple complex felt peaceful and you couldn't help but absorb some of that tranquility and calmness. Walking around the courtyard you could look out over beautiful mountain scenery. Steps at the far end took you up to smaller rooms where there were people inside praying.
For all its apparent size there wasn't actually that much to see or go into. A lot of the areas were no go as it would have meant invading the monks private space. I took a walk around the outside of the complex and peeked in through a gate to see a cosy little courtyard area with the monks sat reading or playing badminton with a makeshift net set up. It looked like a perfect way to spend a Sunday.
Most of the hikers were carrying on past the temple to the trail behind which led up to Mt Geumseong. According to the informative sign it promised to be a good 4 or 5 hour hike there and back. As I was only wearing inappropriate slip-on sandals I let myself off the hook for not undertaking the walk..... Shame!
That evening I took a walk into Busan's film centre.. Every year it holds the PIFF. Pusan(Busan) Internation Film Festival. Having had intimate knowledge of the LFF, London Film Festival I was interested to see how it would compare. However the PIFF isn't until October so I'd have to come back. Busan does have its own equivalent of Leicester Square, along with movie star's handprints on the pavements, but I have to admit my ignorance at most of the names. I think Jackie Chan might have had one though..
Busan has a number of cinemas, not sure if this is because of the festival or is the reason for it, but despite even this I could only find one film to watch. In an attempt to restrict the amount of American movies, the Korean government decreed that a certain percentage of films shown in cinemas must be Korean. Its been a great boom for the Korean film industry and they are starting to reap the rewards for this overseas too, as Korean cinema seems to be the genre du jour.
Anyway, all I could find to watch was the American remake of "The Grudge". I took my seat amidst lots of looks and giggles. I was starting to wonder if I was in the wrong screening, this was further compounded when a family group of three women; mother, young daughter and grandmother came and sat next to me. The little girl was quite keen to try out her "Hello's" on me. The mum cracked open the Tupperware and started passing around the kimbap and dried fish snacks, which very nicely she kept trying to make me take. But, fortunately (!) the film started then, and phew, I was in the right place as it was "The Grudge". I didn't think the little girl, or the nan, would actually like to watch the movie much, but she chirruped and giggled her way through it and seemed as sunny and unfazed at the end as she was before it started. Parts of it were quite scary aswell. I cant imagine that happening much in the UK; a family day out to a horror movie.
They must be made of sterner stuff over here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1117885680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1117885680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jenipa/korea_2005/1117885680/tpod.html Sun, 13 Nov 2005 05:27:58 -0500 Hagwon life: The ups and downs of a novice English Language Teacher in South Korea.

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Busan, Korea Rep.

Well, there are still a couple of months to go before Summer Vacation but this weekend was a long weekend so, a perfect opportunity for a city mini-break....
Ok, calling it a city mini-break is maybe a bit ambitious but there haven't been that many opportunities this year for a longer get-away, so "break" it is and I decided to head for Busan, on the south coast. Korea's second largest city and largest harbour port.
For the most part it is more convenient to use long distance buses to get from town to town as they're cheap and cover most areas. If I could get to Daejeon however I could get the train and, even better get the KTX, Korea's super-fast-high-speed-as-good-as-the-Japanese-bullet-train, train.
Saturday morning found me at 9.30am waiting at Jinchoen for the bus to Daejeon. Unfortuantley the bus had gone at 9am so I was stuck for 2 hours until the next one arrived. No worries, I had plenty of time. My train wasn't due to leave until 2pm and it was simply my paranoia about missing it that had led me to get up and out so early. Jincheon has no train station, and Cheongju's isn't on the right line for the south coast, hence the trip to a much bigger city, Daejeon, to catch the right train. At Korean stations they don't let you on to the platform until 10 minutes before your train arrives so rather like an airport you need to keep an eye on the departures board, where they will let you know if you're ready for boarding. I managed to finally figure this out after my ticket was constantly refused entry at the barrier gate to the platform.
So, no hitches later I was ensconced on a luxury train heading 300km per hour through the countryside to Busan. I say luxury, it wasn't quite Orient Express and complimentary snacks, but the seats were comfy and had plenty of legroom, it seemed new, there was no graffiti, broken seats, slashed fabrics or cigarette burns. It was nice. The announcements were in Korean, English & Japanese and on the little TV monitor we were kept up to date with our location and speed. We stopped just once at Daegu on the way and a mere 2 hours after boarding we arrived in Busan.
Busan is quite sprawling but fortunately has a good subway system. My yeogwan was in Seomyeon, slightly north of the train station but was one of the main subway stations and very easy to get to.
Having arrived I set out to explore. It was a lovely sunny day and that is always good for putting you in the right mood about a place. I don't know if it was getting out of Jincheon fro a weekend or feeling like I was doing something more fun, but I took an instant shine to Busan. I had thought it would be very industrial after all it is a major port. But, like many Korean towns and cities, it is surrounded by mountains forcing the living and business areas to nestle in wherever suitable. It felt very Mediterranean to me as I walked around the main centre of town. The combination of narrow shopping streets, coffee shops, glorious sunshine and glimpses of the blue, blue sea in the distance seemed a far cry from what I associated with "Korea". Seeing as it was a nice afternoon, I headed for Yongdusan park. In actual fact a small mountain park, the way to reach it was on an escalator from the main shopping street. Once at the top there is the park itself and Busan Tower.
The tower is about 100 ft and for 3000W you can take the lift to an a viewing gallery and, ubiquitous, cafe. If its a clear day its well worth the trip up as you get a fantastic 360o view of the city's layout.
Heading back towards the yeogwan I wandered around for a while, not really wanting to shop but the lure of the big bookstore on the corner was too much. Always a sucker for books, especially here where I don't have ready access to them, this store had quite a large foreign language section. Yippee...
There was a tempting looking Korean Italian pizza restaurant where a glass of red wine was calling my name, really the only thing I could do was oblige and check out the best yachae pizza that Busan had to offer.
As a foreigner there is sometimes the nagging feeling that are you receiving lesser treatment from people. On the other hand, you can find yourself receiving that little bit extra attention as people go out of their way to help you or make sure you understand. I think I got a little bit of the latter in the pizza restaurant. After the giggling had subsided, they couldn't decide who had the best English to be my waiter, I got a table next to the window, the whole restaurant and his wife kept popping by to make sure I was ok and to keep refilling my free side dish of M&M's (don't ask..) and I got super large pourings of wine in my glass. The pizza was pretty good too!
Suitably wined and dined I decided to call it a night and traipsed back to the yeogwan. By day the street had seemed a bit dull and uneventful. Coming back at night, it was all a buzz. There was a proliferation of fish restaurants and the tanks outside displaying the ware were illuminated. Busan showed no exception to the neon fetish that every Korean town or city has and the place was brighter than in the day.
The yeogwan itself was quite quiet, I met a Korean couple who were on a long weekend down from Seoul and that was it. I chose a video from a selection of 80's classics at reception and headed for bed...
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